Boston Museum

The Boston Museum is a dream for the future – a dream that will weave countless threads of vivid histories of Boston, of New England and of the entire American nation into an indispensable and cohesive fabric rich with centuries of unmentioned events, poorly represented communities and untold stories. The Boston Museum will be the cultural jewel of Boston, Massachusetts and its surrounding communities and will convey the American national legacy of political leadership, .of the unique American culture of creativity and innovation, of the classic American literary traditions and of the passion for American sports heroes.

The dream of the Boston Museum has been evolving into reality since 1998 when the Boston History Center & Museum, Inc. was established by the Bostonian Society, the Freedom Trail Foundation and the Boston History Collaborative. The timeline of events leading up to the completion and final opening of the Boston Museum is as follows:

- 1999. The White Oak Associates and the American History Workshop were hired and commissioned for brainstorming sessions along with cultural and civic leaders to plan the work of building the Boston Museum and its program contents.

- 2000. The Boston Museum Project team accepts the Turnpike Authority’s RFI for Parcel 12 and considers the possibility of setting the museum’s site at City Hall Plaza.

- 2001. A Visitor Research Study was completed and the first planned fundraising campaign raised one and a half (1.5) million dollars toward the Boston Museum Project.

- 2002. Citizens Bank provided the space and the Boston Museum Project first opened an office in Government Center. The National Park Service, on behalf of the Boston Museum project, conducted and completed a Historic Sites Needs Assessment Study.

- 2003. An Economic Impact Study was completed with favorable results for the Boston Museum Project.

- 2005. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority named the Boston Museum Project as the official developer of Parcel 12 on the new Rose Kennedy Greenway and a second planned fundraising campaign raised in access of two and a half (2.5) million dollars.

- 2006. To further move the cause along, the Boston Museum Project team hired development staff and a communications director.

- 2007. With the project well on its way and the increasing work, the Boston Museum Project dropped the “Project” in its name, expanded its staff and added on more board members. Under its new name, Boston Museum; a) published a newsletter, b) launched a new website, c) assembled a teacher institute on the local environmental and economic history, d) collaborated with Extended Learning Time teachers at the Mario Umana Middle School Academy in East Boston, and e) hosted a series of classes in conjunction with the Boston Center for Adult Education.

- 2008 – 2009. The Boston Museums is planning to embark on a capital fundraising campaign and to intensify the ongoing planning and design work of the museum.

- 2010. The Boston Museum is planning the groundbreaking ceremony.

- 2012. This planning timeline will culminate with the long anticipated grand opening and the Boston Museum experience will begin with an entry through dramatic glass escalators that will lead into a concourse that will be programmed with changing images of Boston. The center of the concourse will feature an Orientation Center, a concierge desk and information kiosks. The concourse will allow access into the Boston Museum through various entryways as well as connecting the Wharf District Parks with the North End Parks for pedestrians.

The planned forty thousand (40,000) square feet of exhibit space will include:
o Boston/World/Boston, a twenty (20) minute feature film linking the local lore to communities around the world.

o The People of the Bay, a depiction of Boston as a crossroad for different cultures and ethnicities.

o Place over Time, an animated exhibit showing the glacial formation of the Massachusetts Bay.

o Conscience and Confrontation will exhibit Boston’s turbulent social and political history.

o Innovation will present Boston’s reinventing of itself from the American Revolution on to the biotech revolution.

o The Sports Gallery will portray Boston’s love of sports.
Boston Museum will be a precious gem in an already abundant city. I cannot wait to be among the first of its visitors.

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